Juror withdraws from stabbing case against city councilwoman

The jury in the trial of a former city councilor accused of attempting to stab his wife has retired to consider its verdict.

Darren Brown, 35, of Wildmill, Bridgend, admitted grievous bodily harm with intent but denied attempted murder.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the former Bridgend councilor stabbed his wife Corinne, 33, in the back as she leaned over a cot to comfort their crying child and that he “wished her dead”.

She was stabbed three times at her home on July 10 last year following an argument over the end of their 16-year relationship.

Ms Brown suffered a lung injury and spent five days in hospital.

The court was told the mother-of-two tried to escape by locking herself in the bathroom, but Mr Brown broke through the door and stabbed her again.

At one point he tried to give her the knife and told her, “We can go together.”

James Wilson, prosecuting, said after the attack Mr Brown left the house and locked the front door behind him.

He told the jury that Mr Brown “did nothing to help her”.

“It could have been fatal,” he said.

Kevin Seal, defending, said Mr Brown had never “put a finger on his wife” before.

The night before the attack, Ms Brown was returning from a weekend trip to Southend-on-Sea.

She had gone to a chef in his 50s who she had met through social media.

The court heard how Ms Brown told her husband the week before that their relationship was over. She said she was no longer in love with her husband.

The spark in her marriage was gone, she said.

Mr Seal said his client was “dismayed” by the end of their marriage.

“He just wanted her to acknowledge and feel his pain,” he said.

Mr Seal told the court Mr Brown took the knife “to scare her, to make her shut up and listen”.

Mr Brown, Mr Seal said, “couldn’t understand what he had done”.

“He wanted to preserve his marriage and family,” he said.

“What he accomplished was losing it.”